The dashboard seems a bit snappier, though it’s not mentioned in the release notes.

Sadly it took Drobo 16 weeks to deliver this firmware update, but it does fix my Lion and Time Machine issues with the Drobo. So the Drobo is back to the way it was the summer of 2011. The transfer speeds are around 28MB/s again, which is way better than the 3MB/s I’ve seen.

You can find and download the firmware updates here: http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

Waiting for the firmware release I tried to find another NAS to replace the Drobo, but could not find any good solution. So I bought some hardware to build my own. I will publish the results as soon as I have something stable.

Just after Lion was released I upgraded my iMac. As many others with a Drobo FS, I noticed that time machine would not function. After weeks of trying to get things working again (rebooted my machine and the Drobo countless times) I gave up. I had countless Finder hangs. The support articles and instructions I received are way too ‘complicated’. Not that I’m not able to, but damn, I bought a Mac because I wanted to get rid of this install hell and poorly written instructions.

If you’re in the same boat (having a DroboFS that is), you’re not going to like my solution!

I created new time machine shares deleted the old, and lost 1 year of time travel in the process. After instructing the machines to use these new shares, everything is working again. The Finder hangs are a thing of the past too.

Good luck!

If you wan’t to have you’re Lion-on-a-Stick here’s how…

After installing Lion, the installer image is deleted from the program folder. Some people have partial success getting the installer again to burn it on an USB stick. You can easily re-download Lion as mentioned in this TUAW article and place it on a stick.

In short: Open the App Store application. By holding the option key (alt) and clicking on the purchased items (top icon bar) you can download Lion again. The whole 3.75GB

Het ging echter prima weg met wat kookplaat reiniger. De daarop volgende keer gebeurde het weer, echter dit keer ging het niet weg met reiniger. Gelukkig vonden we nu een glaskrabbertje en wederom alles netjes weg. Toen ging er een lichtje branden en hebben we zo’n krabbertje mee naar huis genomen. Vanmiddag even geprobeerd en jawel, het suikerachtige laagje konden we er gewoon afkrabben. De plaat is weer als nieuw Dit is ons dus nooit verteld….
We weten nu ook dat het inbranden echt niet zo snel gaat als we dachten. 2 jaar smurrie op de plaat en er is niks meer van te zien.

The other day I replaced a 500GB hard disk in my Mac Pro with a larger 2TB model.

I planned to use the old and proven approach of attaching the new disk, copying all the files from the old to the new and removing the new.

But then it dawned on me, that Time Machine would not recognize the swap and would backup all the data on the new disk again! Effectively doubling that set of data in my Time Machine volume.

To replace the disk the correct way you should:

1. write down the volume name of the current disk (Movies in my case), and the drive bay it is in (in case of multiple drives).

2. verify that it was under Time Machine control by opening the Time Machine preferences and checking it’s not in the list of excluded folders. Check under the options button.

3. possibly verify your time machine data is there, by selecting the volume you want to replace, and then start Time Machine from the dock.

4. shut down your system to replace the drive, in case of internal drives.

5. replace the drive with the new / larger drive

6. start the system if you shut it down in step 4.

7. start disk utility, partition the disk and give it the same name as the old volume

8. start Time Machine from the dock and select the new empty volume in the Finder

9. move back in time to the moment the data is there, select all the data, and restore it (task drop down box).

Time Machine will ask you where you want to restore the data (probably because the disk id has changed;).

10. Select the new empty volume to restore to.

Now sit back and watch Time Machine restore all data. It will take some time, but the next time Time Machine runs, and nothing has been added to the volume, it won’t backup anything since nothing has changed.

The best way to open the Duplo train is by using the following parts:

• pair of pliers
• duct tape
• two small pieces of cardboard
• screwdriver bit (flat)

Prepare the pliers by taping the two pieces of cardboard to protect the pliers beak. This prevents the pliers from damaging the train.

Now place the screwdriver bit exactly on the visible yellow tabs before applying pressure with the pliers.

Now carefully apply pressure to the bit using the pliers.

Sadly the Intelli train does not have the large black bumpers so, this method does not work on that type of train. I need to find another approach for that one

Good luck!

Here’s the result!

This is the before picture…

I removed the strip and rack from the top. The strip needed some prying on the sides with the rubber back of a pair of pincers. This prevents accidental damage of the paint on the strip.

Then removed the thermostat to free the front panel. The vertical panels you see on the photo make it difficult to place the towel rail, since the panels are 60cm apart. This is about the same width as the anchorages of the towel rail. The front radiator panel is not aligned dead center between the vertical panels, so I did have some room to attach the towel rail.

The front panel is 80cm. I attached the towel rail 10 cm from the top and about 10cm from the sides. To make sure the panel is strong enough I used angled aluminum strips. To attach the towel rail mounts, drill the horizontal hole first. This leaves you room to align the mounts to the rail correctly.

Almost done!

I’m very happy with the result!

The notification mechanism works fine, but the information you get in the notification e-mails is poor. Why are they poorly implemented / designed:

1. all is well event is missing
   The Drobo only sends out messages when something is wrong with your Drobo. After fixing the problem, the Drobo needs time to recuperate (e.g. rebuild a drive). It won’t tell you when it’s done so you need to check the Drobo or the Dashboard app.
2. e-mail subject is too generic
   The subject of the e-mail only contains the type of error (Drobo Warning, Drobo Notification, Critical Drobo Alert). This means you need to open every message too see what’s going on. They should make it “Drobo Notification: Drive in slot 1 was removed”
3. body of e-mail contains not enough details
   The body of the e-mail notification only hints on the problem like “Drobo cannot currently protect your data against hard drive failures”. Why? would be the first question that comes to mind. Are there any bad drives? What drives are bad?
   Another example is the “Drobo detected a new drive was added” message. In what slot was this drive inserted, and perhaps even what type of drive and how large. This is information that is available and can be known to me as user.

Recently I got several e-mail messages indicating:

• notification, drive was removed (3:07)
• critical alert, cannot currently protect your data  (3:07)
• notification, a new drive was added (3:08)
• warning, data protection in progress (3:08)
• warning, data protection in progress (4:32)

All of these messages are close to each other and in the middle of the night. None was caused by my actions, so it must have been a glitch / near fail of one of the drives. But I can’t take any action because I don’t know what drive to replace. (BTW I did not check any of the logs yet).

I wrote a feature request in the Drobo forum a some time ago, but there is no real participation from the staff in this forum. Please bump it in the forum if you read this and feel the same.

Perhaps I find the time to patch the system through the SSH connection available through the SSH Drobo App

Luckily there is a work around. The guys that created Airprint Activator created a small tool that shares my printer the Airprint way.
Not the best possible solution, but it works.